4 NEWS IN GENERAL. A parade in which nearly 10,000 fire- men participated, brought to a close Thursday the thirty-sixth annual con- vention of the State Firemen’s asso- ciation in Philadelphia. President Wilson has announced his engagement to Mrs. Norman Gait, a beautiful widow of Washington. Their wedding will take place the first week in December. Mrs. Wilson died fourteen months ago. War between Bulgaria. and the En- tent powers was declared last week Austro-German troops to the number of 400,000 invaded Serbia with Field ; Marshall Von Mackensen at their head and captured Belgrade. A slide in the Gaillard cut of the Panama canal will take probably ten months to dredge. One hundred ves- sels, waiting pi e through the «canal, will be- oto go to their destin- ation some other way. Reports of five of the largest bake carrying the payrolls of big ecorpor- ations in the Pittsburg district. show {that the October pay will approximate ‘$32,000,000, exceeding that of any “month for several years by at least 15 per cent. The largest preceding payroll month of recent years was October, 1911, when the aggregate for the same banks was $26,000,000. J. C. Wanamaker, of Toledo, Ohio, received full value for his money at a restaurant in that city, recently, for he found a pearl worth more than $100 dn a 26 cent dish of raw oysters. One «©f the waiters in the restaurant con- tended the pearl belonged to him, but the Toledo man refused to give it"to the waiter. Mr. Wanamaker returned to Toledo with the pearl in his poss-